Cannibalism Game Mechanics, pt. 1 of 2

WOAH! this brings up a whole new thing. Wow, why haven't we thought of this before. Since Avatars from Earth don't seem to stay dead, it's possible that a person could eat himself.

To Literally EAT YOUR HEART OUT!!! This is awesome!

 

I think that theres something VERY important that has been missed for us on the full cannibalism side of the aisle. We ourselves should try to create cannibilism mechanics in a game that caters to the idea of it not being doable in PvP at all. Because in the end it is not our call as to wether or not we will be able to freely grab as many trophies and organs with fully displayed player names on them. We are just the brainstormers really.
I want to be able to carve corpses. If Bowen Bloodgood happens to die and I see his corpse laying there, ill carve it up right in front of him if I can. Ill be just like predator, grab the tailbone and rip the spine and skull right out and roar with content of the trophy I now have.(No offense man). Its not just the character that he plays that suffers from this, the person behind the screen is personally offended and now wants to quit because of this. Well shucks, I dont want him to quit i'd rather him enjoy the player rivalry behind it, get angry, and be motivated to come after me somehow. But that's just not how its going to work. Dunno how many players would do the same, be nice if we could get them all on this discussion as well.
But anyways, lets for a moment, try to see what we can get out of this as gore, and cannibal lovers. Lets try to ask what would be allowed in THEIR game with THEIR limitations on the whole thing. So.... as far as I know, all we have to do to compromise is eliminate the cannibalism of corpses or even the carving and trophy harvesting of other corpses. Is this correct? That is all that is neccessary, everything goes so long as we don't have the ability to carve up players and have organs and meat with their specific name on it we can have whatever we want in the game gore and cannibal-wise?
I want to be sure that we develop good PvM alternatives to things we enjoy in this game, because while im one to be very pro full loot open world PvP, I dont feel like we have much of a game at all unless the PvM alternatives are well developed.

I have much much more to say on this topic but the main question I need answered first is: What limitations do you want when it comes to cannibals and corpse carving, those of you who dont want to be carved up and sold to necromancers? I want to know what ill be allowed to do to NPC's.

 

So, this is tough.

I would prefer that Portalarium implement the feature without an opt out, simply as a test-run. Code the bare minimum of the features that have been suggested to make it work as intended, and then see how the community feels about it in a release.

If they decide that people should be able to opt out of it entirely, then it is what it is.

But, I think that for Portalarium to limit this matter to being settled on the forums without any testing whatsoever will have ultimately failed one of their stated goals: to get people out of their comfort zone, to get them to try new things, to really feel drawn to do well and feel tempted by evil.

They want PvE people to feel drawn to PvP. They want PvP people to feel drawn to PvE. I think that this mechanic helps usher that notion along. If they keep up the "opt out" trend, they're going to be left with a pretty bland, cookie cutter game with little personality that simply falls short of expectations - "Opt Out of the Avatar."

Still, you do ask a good question, one that I should have asked. Thank you, Robby.

 

Very good idea. There really is no need to have any kind of opt out feature at all during the testing phase... So perhaps when there is any initial release of cannibalism or PvP at all the opt out feature shouldn't exist. Should have it full loot open world PvP with no cannibal or corpse carving limitations. It will certainly stir up reactions. But I think it would be difficult to argue that any harm has been done especially when whatever character you made is just a test and is going to be wiped anyway. It just gives them more oppurtunity to experience and work with all the flaws in a full loot open pvp world with no limitation on corpse carving or cannibalism.
And yea I feel its a good question to ask what I can do with an NPC... I always feel that the controversial things tend to focus too much on PvP, and as a result when they are removed from PvP, they get removed from PvM as well.... Making the entire game really really watered down and boring, not just the PvP part of it. Im all for a trammel based game if thats what results. But I surely hope that all the bickering over what we can do to each other as players doesn't water down the entire game. NPC's are our little toys, we can do whatever we want to them, and it can be a very fun and immersive game.
Ill point out that in trammel UO the stealing skill became totally worthless, you couldn't even use it on NPC's. It became limited to just being usable in felucca, and eventually it could only be used to pinch a few regs or bandages while dueling(and if they stacked their regs and bandages into piles of two, your skill was worthless even in fel). You couldn't carve corpses in felucca either, not even of NPC's. So we need to be pre-emptive and be sure to ask "can't we at least do this against NPC's?" to make sure that we can at least become dread lords PvM style. The entertainment value of NPC's should never be overlooked in an online game, I think that too often it is.

 

poor bowen

 

@crossbowsoda

Actually yeah. I would've dropped it. I was attempting to use your experience as a DM to drive home the idea that how we interact with people we're playing with influences their experience/enjoyment of the game. By that time I had already made my point. There was no reason not to drop it.

 

There's no Smith's Anvil Harder than Bowen Bloodgood
Idea + Hammer + Bowen + Flames = Thoroughly Thought!
~Time Lord~

 

I'm not going to put up much fuss about testing but I would remind folks that people have quit over less. I don't need a psychic to know the cannibal crowd would go nuts during testing.

Now there players across the whole spectrum between "alright I'm going to turn PvPer and get this guy" to "I'm so offended how could they let people do this to me.. I just want to enjoy my game". Some of those people will quit even during testing. Unless you know the person you're doing it to you just don't know where on the spectrum they live.

You could always ask them privately if they mind but most players aren't going to do that.

@rild: I pretty much expect to be picked on for at least the first year after launch at this point.

 

One word "Necropants!"

 

wow that is grisly

 

Hehe you would like this stuff. Im assuming your a fan of berserk, and if so, nothing brutal or cannibalistic or gruesome is going to phase you.
I'd love to have a game as brutal as berserk is and all. But it's tough, people are too faint of heart to enjoy the material in berserk. Just look at what griffith did to you in the "eclipse" episode(never read the manga much but my bro does I like to watch the anime shows).

I think the crooked guards idea you have here is nice. The town guards were pretty boring in UO, they just popped out and butchered you in one good whack. Be nice if the guard system was more immersive. You couldn't bribe a guard in UO, I remember dropping gold on the guards and they would say "art thou trying to bribe me?".

And then if you had a head on you that you just carved and dropped it on a guard they would just say something like "you monster how can you give me an innocent person's head". You would think that if you flashed a bloody innocent person's head to a town guard that you might face some kind of legal consequences.

 

I vote that we add poops and pees to the game along with body odor and haircuts/shaves. Might as well add a bunch of realistic but unnecessary mechanics while we are about it!

How about shoe wear and tear from walking or bunions and blisters?

Let's go all in here!


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I don't see a problem with that. Just throw poops, and pees, in the list of emotes which are "realistic, but unnecessary mechanics".

DID YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE??? LOL

You said let's add poops and pees... to the game, then (using sarcasm) inferred that this topic about cannibalism was an unnecessary mechanic.

Then I came along and pointed out the obvious. Emotes are unnecessary. BWAAHHAHAHAHAHA!



nevermind forget I said anything.

 

Emotes aren't unnecessary. They convey emotion for role play. Some might be gratuitous or frivolous but not unnecessary.

I would argue that cannibalism is as necessary to the game as forcing a player to drop what they are doing and head off to the fantasy outhouse. Both are real world concerns that are really not required for immersion.

Oh and I don't see what you did there... Required maintenance actions are not the same as emotes.


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OH I see! Then we are on the same page. You weren't expressing that cannibalism is an unnecessary component of the game?

Well I think cannibalism is great. you think cannibalism is great. That's great!

 

I'll clarify... I do not think its great. It is a useless and annoying function IMO.

Better?


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HAH! I was then, thusly, proveden correct when I made my previous statement, previous to the statement I made last.

Then I guess that means the for mentioned sarcasm was indeed the case and I smashed it with words of POWER!

YOU ARE TOAST!

 

If you say so....


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Im all for adding poops and pees! Back around the first time I discovered this game I created a thread about the important object missing in the world of UO: TOILETS!